10.  The applicant was born in 1958. She is serving a prison sentence in the region of Galicia.
11.  In eight separate sets of criminal proceedings before the Audiencia Nacional[1], the applicant was sentenced as follows.
(a)  In judgment no. 77/1988 of 18 December 1988: for being a member of a terrorist organisation, to eight years’ imprisonment; for illegal possession of weapons, to seven years’ imprisonment; for possession of explosives, to eight years’ imprisonment; for forgery, to four years’ imprisonment; and for using forged identity documents, to six months’ imprisonment.
(b)  In judgment no. 8/1989 of 27 January 1989: for damage to property, in conjunction with six counts of grievous bodily harm, one of causing bodily harm and nine of causing minor injuries, to sixteen years’ imprisonment.
(c)  In judgment no. 43/1989 of 22 April 1989: for a fatal attack and for murder, to twenty-nine years’ imprisonment on each count.
(d)  In judgment no. 54/1989 of 7 November 1989, for a fatal attack, to thirty years’ imprisonment; for eleven murders, to twenty-nine years for each murder; for seventy-eight attempted murders, to twenty-four years on each count; and for damage to property, to eleven years’ imprisonment. The Audiencia Nacional ordered that in accordance with Article 70.2 of the Criminal Code of 1973, the maximum term to be served (condena) should be thirty years.
(e)  In judgment no. 58/1989 of 25 November 1989: for a fatal attack and two murders, to twenty-nine years’ imprisonment in respect of each charge. The Audiencia Nacional ordered that in accordance with Article 70.2 of the Criminal Code of 1973, the maximum term to be served (condena) should be thirty years.
(f)  In judgment no. 75/1990 of 10 December 1990: for a fatal attack, to thirty years’ imprisonment; for four murders, to thirty years’ imprisonment on each count; for eleven attempted murders, to twenty years’ imprisonment on each count; and on the charge of terrorism, to eight years’ imprisonment. The judgment indicated that for the purposes of the custodial sentences the maximum sentence provided for in Article 70.2 of the Criminal Code of 1973 should be taken into account.
(g)  In judgment no. 29/1995 of 18 April 1995: for a fatal attack, to twenty-eight years’ imprisonment, and for attempted murder, to twenty years and one day. The court again referred to the limits provided for in Article 70 of the Criminal Code.
(h)  In judgment no. 24/2000 of 8 May 2000: for an attack with intent to murder, to thirty years’ imprisonment; for murder, to twenty-nine years’ imprisonment; for seventeen attempted murders, to twenty-four years’ imprisonment on each count; and for damage to property, to eleven years’ imprisonment. The judgment stated that the sentence to be served should not exceed the limit provided for in Article 70.2 of the Criminal Code of 1973. In determining which criminal law was applicable (the Criminal Code of 1973, which was applicable at the material time, or the later Criminal Code of 1995), the Audiencia Nacional considered that the more lenient law was the 1973 Criminal Code, because of the maximum term to be served as provided for in Article 70.2 of that Code, combined with the remissions of sentence for work done in detention as provided for in Article 100.
12.  In all, the terms of imprisonment to which the applicant was sentenced for these offences, committed between 1982 and 1987, amounted to over 3,000 years.
13.  The applicant was held in pre-trial detention from 6 July 1987 to 13 February 1989 and began to serve her first sentence after conviction on 14 February 1989.
14.  By a decision of 30 November 2000, the Audiencia Nacional notified the applicant that the legal and chronological links between the offences of which she had been convicted made it possible to group them together (acumulación de penas) as provided for in section 988 of the Criminal Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal) in conjunction with Article 70.2 of the 1973 Criminal Code, in force when the offences were committed. The Audiencia Nacional fixed the maximum term to be served by the applicant in respect of all her prison sentences combined at thirty years.
15.  By a decision of 15 February 2001, the Audiencia Nacional set the date on which the applicant would have fully discharged her sentence (liquidación de condena) at 27 June 2017.
16.  On 24 April 2008, taking into account the 3,282 days’ remission to which she was entitled for the work she had done since 1987, the authorities at Murcia Prison, where the applicant was serving her sentence, proposed to the Audiencia Nacional that she be released on 2 July 2008. Documents submitted to the Court by the Government show that the applicant was granted ordinary and extraordinary remissions of sentence by virtue of decisions of the judges responsible for the execution of sentences (Jueces de Vigilancia Penitenciaria at first instance and Audiencias Provinciales on appeal) in 1993, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2003 and 2004, for cleaning the prison, her cell and the communal areas and undertaking university studies.
17.  However, on 19 May 2008 the Audiencia Nacional rejected that proposal and asked the prison authorities to submit a new date for the applicant’s release, based on a new precedent (known as the “Parot doctrine”) set by the Supreme Court in its judgment no. 197/2006 of 28 February 2006. According to this new approach, sentence adjustments (beneficios) and remissions were no longer to be applied to the maximum term of imprisonment of thirty years, but successively to each of the sentences imposed (see “Relevant domestic law and practice”, paragraphs 39-42 below).
18.  The Audiencia Nacional explained that this new approach applied only to people convicted under the Criminal Code of 1973 to whom Article 70.2 thereof had been applied. As that was the applicant’s case, the date of her release was to be changed accordingly.
19.  The applicant lodged an appeal (súplica) against that decision. She argued, inter alia, that the application of the Supreme Court’s judgment was in breach of the principle of non-retroactive application of criminal-law provisions less favourable to the accused, because instead of being applied to the maximum term to be served, which was thirty years, remissions of sentence for work done in detention were henceforth to be applied to each of the sentences imposed. The effect, she argued, would be to increase the term of imprisonment she actually served by almost nine years. The Court has not been apprised of the outcome of this appeal.
20.  By an order of 23 June 2008, based on a new proposal by the prison authorities, the Audiencia Nacional set the date for the applicant’s final release (licenciamiento definitivo) at 27 June 2017.
21.  The applicant lodged a súplica appeal against the order of 23 June 2008. By a decision of 10 July 2008 the Audiencia Nacional rejected the applicant’s appeal, explaining that it was not a question of limits on prison sentences, but rather of how to apply reductions of sentence in order to determine the date of a prisoner’s release. Such reductions were henceforth to be applied to each sentence individually. Lastly, the Audiencia Nacional considered that the principle of non-retroactive application had not been breached because the criminal law applied in this case had been that in force at the time of its application.
22.  Relying on Articles 14 (prohibition of discrimination), 17 (right to liberty), 24 (right to effective judicial protection) and 25 (principle of legality) of the Constitution, the applicant lodged an amparo appeal with the Constitutional Court. By a decision of 17 February 2009, the Constitutional Court declared the appeal inadmissible on the ground that the applicant had not demonstrated the constitutional relevance of her complaints.